


End of Forever

by lilyvalley



Series: The Death of Marlene McKinnon [1]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Canonical Character Death, F/M, First War with Voldemort, Gen, Marauders, Marauders' Era, Minor Character Death
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-27
Updated: 2014-12-27
Packaged: 2018-03-03 18:43:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,893
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2863121
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lilyvalley/pseuds/lilyvalley
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Remus comes to the Gryffindor Class of 1978 with news of their first tragedy.</p>
            </blockquote>





	End of Forever

**Author's Note:**

> NOTE: My headcanon has Marlene McKinnon and James Potter as cousins, and the Marauders along with Order members Dorcas Meadowes, Mary McDonald, Frank & Alice Longbottom (and of course Marlene McKinnon) as all part of the same graduating Gryffindor class.

  


“Marlene is dead.”

Lily chokes out the words, but they all hear them just the same. Alice’s mouth falls and eyes widen before she turns to Frank, who grips her hand tightly. Dorcas recoils back, as if to distance herself from the news, then shakes her head, not wanting to believe it. James holds Lily close to him, absorbing her sobs, but his eyes shine with restraint. Peter merely stands still, frozen. Sirius’s eyes harden, as does his grip on his wand.

Remus sits in a corner, his head in his hands, looking at no one.

Mary is the one who manages to speak, though her words veer on the unintelligible. “No... she can’t...”

James nods jerkily in response. “We found out a few hours ago. The... the Ministry came to us. Marlene’s whole family is dead. The McKinnons are all gone. And... they came to us because... because we’re the only family left.”

“Who found them?” Alice manages to whisper.

“Me,” chokes out Remus. His voice is hoarse, and he still has his head buried in his hands, but his voice still carries. He doesn’t think he’ll ever be able to erase the image he has seen today.

* * *

_He awakes groggily, and it takes him a few moments to remember where he is._

_Then he groans, seeing the walls of the Shrieking Shack._ At least I’m still in here, _he thinks. He looks around to see that his friends have left already, but a shadow of a black dog - Sirius’s patronus - nods at him, seeing that he is awake, before bounding away._

_He takes a few moments to make himself look somewhat presentable before he apparates out of the shack and into the apartment. It is quiet, so he pads softly to the bedroom, trying not to wake her up. When he enters, though, the bed is made, and Marlene is most certainly not in it._

_He exits the bedroom with a frown and calls out, “Marley?”_

_His answer is silence, and though he knows he shouldn’t assume the worst, he is worried nonetheless. If she had decided to stay over at her parents’ house, he knows she would have left a note or a patronus. But there is no sign that she has returned to the apartment since she left last night._

_In a panic, he apparates to the McKinnon household, and immediately he can see something is wrong. The foyer is in shambles, and he sprints through the house calling her name. “Marlene! Marlene!”_

_It is her brother’s body he finds first, and he claps a hand to his mouth in horror, but he won’t stop until he finds her. “Marlene!” he calls again._

_She is in the living room, slumped against the table, and he rushes to her and grabs her shoulders. “Wake up!” he pleads, shaking her. “Wake up, Marley, please.”_

_But her eyes are open, blank, still, as is the rest of her, and he realizes she will not wake up ever again._

* * *

Silence fills the room. Everyone has questions but no one knows how to ask them. Mary opens her mouth a few times as if to say something, but no words ever come out. Peter’s mouth is resolutely glued shut. Alice looks lost in thought, Sirius has his hands shoved in his pockets, and Lily’s broken sobs, muffled as they are by James’s shoulder, are the only sound in the room.

Finally, Frank speaks. “Do... do we know who did it?”

James shakes his head. “There were some Death Eaters there that had been taken out, but there had to be more. From the looks of the house, they had to be outnumbered.”

Dorcas looks sharply at James. “You saw it?”

He shakes his head, and Remus speaks again. “No... no, I did. I told them. After... after the Ministry had gone. I... I had to tell someone.”

Sirius casts a worried look at Remus, then turns to James. “Shouldn’t we tell Dumbledore? And the rest of the Order?”

“I’m sure he’ll know soon enough,” Lily rasps out, her first words since her stark announcement. Having emerged from James’s embrace, it is clear she has calmed down somewhat, though her eyes and face are still blotchy. She wipes tears away with an angry swipe of her right arm before she continues. “In any case, we thought... we thought you guys would want to hear it from us, before he announced anything. Because... because...”

She trails off, unable to finish her thought, but they all understand. _Because we are the Gryffindor Class of 1978._ All the people in this room - and Marlene - had spent seven years of Hogwarts together, laughed in their common room together, gossiped in their dormitories together, and a good number of them had played Quidditch together. Joining the Order had been a natural progression of events, and while they had always known dying was a risk, they had never imagined they would lose one of their own.

But Marlene is gone.

Without words, they branch off into their own corners of the room. Dorcas and Mary discuss in harsh whispers, while Alice and Frank hold each others’ hands tightly and talk in more subdued tones. Sirius and Peter wander over to Remus’s corner, and Lily shares a look with James before she lets go of his hand to wander over to Dorcas and Mary.

The Marauders gather around Remus, who still hasn’t removed his head from his hands in all this time.

“Moony, say something,” Sirius urges. “You’re worrying me here.”

“She can’t be gone,” he croaks, shaking his head. “They can’t be. She... she can’t...”

James places a steady hand on Remus’s shoulder, and Peter replies quietly, “We know.”

“Do you?” he barks suddenly, turning his teary, red-rimmed, misery-filled eyes at Peter and the rest of them. “Do you understand? Marley is - was - no, no, she still is - she is... she is everything.” He buries his head back in hands then whispers again, “Everything.”

“Remus...” Sirius begins gently. “It’s... it’s not your fault.”

“I know,” he replies hoarsely. “But I... I could’ve...”

James shakes his head. “Not last night you couldn’t.”

Remus turns to look at him. “Maybe... if I’d been there...”

“Then you would be dead too,” Peter replies quickly. “There’s nothing you could’ve done.”

“I have to think... if only...” Remus trails off, thinking again of his last moments with her.

* * *

_He turns to look at her, eyes anxious. “You’re sure they won’t be mad, Marls?”_

_She laughs in response. “Don’t be ridiculous, Remy. My family loves you. Missing one dinner isn’t going to change their minds.”_

_“But I mean...” He grins a little at her response, but his eyes are still filled with worry. “Now that we’re... I feel like I shouldn’t miss this. Because, I mean, you know -”_

_His words are cut off when she leans up to kiss him, and he feels her smile upon his lips and cannot help but smile too. Looping her arms around his neck, she whispers against his mouth, “They understand, Remus. Stop worrying. I’m sure they’d much rather you take care of yourself then have us be forced to Stun you so we don’t all end up with full moon boggarts.”_

_The corners of his mouth pull into a frown and he opens his mouth to say more, but again she cuts him off with a kiss. “Kidding. Stop worrying, darling, seriously. You’re practically family, it’s just not official for a few months. They love you.” She pulls away to look into his eyes, brushing some of his hair away from his face. “I love you.”_

_He smiles again, placing his forehead against hers. “I love you, too.”_

_“As you bloody well should,” she replies, before pressing her mouth against his again. Her lips begin to press against his more insistently, and he nearly lifts her up against the wall until he remembers what tonight is._

_It takes some effort to pull away - she’s intoxicatingly irresistible when she wants to be - but he manages to breathe heavily, “You need to go before I can’t control myself anymore.”_

_Again she laughs that bright laugh of hers, muttering, “Not if I can help it.”_

_Despite his efforts to stay serious, his mouth quirks in amusement. “You know what I mean.”_

_“Yeah, yeah,” she waves him off. “I’m going, I’m going. I’ll see you tomorrow, yes?” She pulls away and starts gathering her things, but she leans in one last time to give him a goodbye peck on the cheek. “I’ll bring leftovers.”_

_He laughs and waves her off, then she Disapparates out of their apartment and is gone._

* * *

“There was nothing you could do,” Sirius stresses emphatically. “Moony, please. Don’t blame yourself.”

“It was the full moon,” Peter adds, in his subdued tone. “It was for good reason that you weren’t there.”

James says nothing, so it is to him Remus turns his sorrowful eyes to. “You understand, don’t you.”

“She was my cousin,” he replies softly. “Not first cousin, true, but she might as well have been. Her whole family... even though I was an only child, we had family gatherings with the McKinnons all the time. That’s not an option anymore.” He pauses to let out a deep breath. “Lily and Harry are the only family I have left.”

Remus takes this in, but even more quietly, he states, “But that’s not what I meant.”

James’s mouth twists, but he doesn’t reply to that. Instead, Remus continues, in his broken voice.

“Imagine... Lily dying. Without you. Without you there to do anything for her. To protect her. To hold her. To tell her you love her one last time. Imagine losing her. Imagine losing the light in your life. Imagine losing everything.”

The four of them sit in silence for a few moments. It is a moment of silence for Marlene McKinnon, for the McKinnon family. A moment of silence for the true end of their childhood and any innocence. A moment of silence for the loss of great witches and wizards. A moment of silence for Remus Lupin, whose bride did not live to see her wedding day.

Finally, James speaks. “Because... because we’re the only ones left... it wasn’t supposed to, necessarily, since... the McKinnons thought they could pass on inheritances to each other, but the Ministry told us it’s all going to us. To Harry, Lily and I have decided. But...” He digs into his pocket and pulls out a pouch, which he places in the palm of Remus’s hand. “But this is yours, Moony.”

Remus stares at the bag in his hand for a few seconds, before he slowly moves to undo the strings of the purse. Then, laying there, is the ring. The simple, slender ring he had picked out only a few months ago. The ring he had slipped onto Marley’s finger after she had enthusiastically replied, _”Yes, you stupid prat!”_ The ring that had been a promise of a golden one to come in a few months. The ring that had symbolized the beginning of forever.

His fingers close around the last thing he has of her now, and he forces down the lump that has emerged in his throat. “Thank you, Prongs,” he states after a few moments, in a wavering voice.

Remus had never imagined that forever would end so soon.


End file.
